Local News

Suspended Levy County Commissioner Sammy Yearty's appeal of his convictions on solicitation and acceptance of a bribe and lying to the FBI in an interview were upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in an unpublished ruling released Wednesday.
The ruling by the three-judge panel of the Atlanta court is a victory for District Chief Judge Stephan P. Mickle and Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg McMahon, the judge and prosecutor in a series of public corruption trials against officials in Levy and Dixie counties.

Bob McFadden, director of the Levy County Sheriff's Department's Citizen On Patrol (COPs) program, talks with about a dozen seniors at the Chiefland Multipurpose Senior Center on Tuesday. He was there as part of the "Seniors vs. Crimes" program, which teaches seniors about scams, among other things. "If anybody sends you anything or calls you with anything you're not sure about, give us a call. And never send any money."

Chiefland's Morgan Anderson stretches to scoop up this throw in time to put out a Lafayette runner during this past weekend's District 4 softball tourney in Gainesville. Chiefland outscored opponents 65-14 to win the district and advance to the 12-under state tournament July 6-10 in Ponte Vedra.

LAKE CITY: The following is a list of roadwork underway by the FDOT that may impact traffic.

ALACHUA COUNTY:

Interstate 75 Daytime lane closures just south of Newberry Road (State Road 26/Exit 387) from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to allow crews to widen the northbound exit ramp onto Newberry Road. Traffic is shifted to the west just south of the interchange because of the addition of a barrier wall on the east side of the project.

John Davis, a businessman seeking the Republican nomination for president, brought his three-foot star-spangled pipe wrench and his brand of fixer-upper conservative politics to Levy County on Tuesday.
The pipe wrench represents the Colorado resident's campaign theme, "Let's Fix America."
Davis, who is on his sixth bus trip around the country to raise awareness of his campaign, said Levy is the 644th of the country's 3,260 counties he has visited.

Chiefland commissioners decided to postpone a decision Monday night that would let the city’s waste management contractor provide a free recycling pickup for the next year.
The proposed recycling program would require the city to renew its contract with the waste management company Waste Pro a year in advance, overlapping its current contract. The new contract would be for another three years.

Levy Sheriff's Deputy Cpl. Brian Mara, critically injured when his patrol car hit a concrete utility pole in Bronson on May 26, is recovering at home in Dunnellon after leaving the hospital on Monday.
Mara, who was responding to a call when his vehicle collided with another, hit the pole and burst into flames, will undergo physical therapy. No date has been set for his return to the force.

By A.B. Sidibe
Special to the Citizen
A severe drought across Florida is wilting crops, sparking wildfires and sinking one of the country’s largest lakes to historically low levels.
The majority of the state is experiencing the drought, prompted by La Nina conditions characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures that are causing similar dry spells across the southern U.S., from New Mexico all the way to the Atlantic coast and north to Delaware.

Diane L. Hamilton of Chiefland was the Week 1 winner of the Chiefland Citizen’s Readers’ Choice Awards drawing.
From now through June 29, readers of the Chiefland Citizen will have the opportunity to cast a vote for the business that goes above and beyond in its respective category (this week’s ballot can be found on Page 11A).